


Asylum

by Kalta79



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Mind Games
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-15 00:55:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10547286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalta79/pseuds/Kalta79
Summary: Set between The Gift and Bargaining, Buffy 'wakes up' to her worst nightmare.





	

_I can’t do it…I can’t lose her. She’s all I’ve got left_. Buffy’s thoughts kept going over and over those words as she ran up the tower to Dawn. As she reached the top, she saw an old man with a bloody knife in front of a crying and badly cut Dawn.

“Dawn.” Buffy called to her sister.

”Buffy!” Dawn’s voice was too much for the Slayer. She didn’t know who the old man was and didn’t care…he said something but she didn’t hear him. She just pushed him out of the way on her to way to her little sister.

"Here." Buffy started untying Dawn's hands from the poles.

"Buffy, it hurts." The blood had reached her legs...it felt so warm.

"I got it. Come here. You're gonna be okay." Buffy finally finished untying the knots, as Dawn felt the blood roll down onto her feet and fall down to the ground. Then Buffy started taking her over to the stairs, but Dawn felt something and stopped. She looked back and saw the portal opening. She turned her head to Buffy. 

"Go!" Buffy ordered.

"Buffy, it's started." Dawn’s voice was full of defeat and fear.

The two sisters watched as the place they’d come to accept as their home was torn apart by the dimensions ripping their way into Sunnydale.

“I'm sorry”. Dawn tried to be strong like Buffy had always been. She knew what she had to do.

“It doesn’t matter.” Buffy knew it didn’t. All that mattered to her was that Dawn was safe.

Dawn made a move to run towards the portal but Buffy stopped her.

“What are you doing?” Buffy stared at her sister intently.

“I have to jump…the energy...” Dawn wished she could take back all the times she had been unfair to her sister…and her mother.

“It'll kill you.”

“I know. Buffy, I know about the ritual. I have to stop it.”

“No.”

“I have to. Look at what's happening!” 

Buffy then finally sees all the destruction happening around her.

“Buffy, you have to let me go. Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it'll never stop! You know you have to let me. It has to have the blood.”

Those words trigger something in Buffy. Her expression changes to one of contentment, and it scares her younger sister. Buffy turns to looks at the portal and the sun rising in the distance, then turns back to face Dawn again, and this time her sister _knows_ what it means.

“Buffy ... no!”

“Dawnie, I have to.”

“No!”

“Listen to me. Please, there's not a lot of time, listen. Dawn, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles ... tell Giles I figured it out. And…and I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world ... is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me.”

Buffy kissed Dawn on the cheek. She hated to see her sister crying like this, but Dawn would be safe now. And without Buffy’s Slaying to cause trouble, she knew her kid sister would be better off. And it was all going to end now. Buffy wouldn’t ever have to fight again, she was going to be able to finally rest. Without hesitation she turned and ran to the end of the platform, jumping into the portal. The crackling energy seared her into a feeling beyond pain. Buffy felt herself drift off, and she didn’t fight it. She was done fighting. The last image that crossed her mind before blackness took over was her parents bringing Dawn home from the hospital.

Buffy awoke with a start. She reached to turn off her alarm clock only to find it not there. She looked around her and saw a familiar face sitting on the other bed in the room.

“Dawnie?”

“Who else? Come on, you better get dressed before Dr. Giles gets here. You know they don’t like it if you don’t try and play the good little psycho so they can keep getting funded.”

Buffy got out of bed and noticed a closet. There were some of her and Dawn’s clothes in there. She had just started to walk towards the door when it opened and Giles walked in. She barely noticed the white coat and nametag he was wearing, or the clipboard he had in his hand.

“Giles, what is going on here? Am I dead? Where am I? Is this Heaven? Or Hell? Or just some really awful dream from some demon?” she confronted her mentor.

“Ah, Miss Summers. Back to being disrespectful I see. Well as I’ve had to remind you quite frequently. I am Dr. Giles, your doctor. You are not in Sunnydale, you’re in a mental institution. You’ve been with us now for five years. You are not a Slayer, I am not your Watcher, Dawn here is not your sister, she’s a incurable kleptomaniac, Nurse Rosenberg is not a witch or your friend, any more than the janitor, a Mr. Harris is. Your father died in a car crash years ago, and your mother died a few months ago due to a tumor. And it’s time for your medication. Nurse Rosenberg!”

“Willow and Xander? They’re here too?” Buffy didn’t understand what was going on, but at least relieved to know all her friends were here, even if her parents weren’t. Just then Willow came in, in a nurse’s uniform, pushing a cart filled with medications and things to administer it.

“Willow!” Buffy was glad to see her friend, but stunned by the lack of warmth that was always in her face.

“Yep, time for your medication again. I wonder what they put in this stuff, it’s so expensive. It’s imported from England.” she said.

“Medication? For what?” Buffy was starting to get scared now. No one was acting right. She backed up against the wall.

“Oh don’t be difficult again.” Giles pushed a button on the wall and two big orderlies came in. “Miss Summers is not wanting her medication. Hold her down so Nurse Rosenberg can administer it.”

That freaked Buffy out enough to get her to try and make a bolt for the door, but one of the orderlies caught her and put her down on the bed. Straps she didn’t notice before on the bed were used to tie her by the other orderly. She didn’t understand where her superstrength was, until she saw the bottle Willow had, and she went beyond fear. That was the stuff the Council had Giles use on her for the Slayer’s Rite of Passage. She was helpless again.

“Now come on, this won’t hurt you.” Willow said as she filled the needle with enough for a single dose. She approached the bed and Buffy’s right arm. Dr. Giles closed the door then, but not before one of Buffy’s screams escaped to reverberate down the white halls of her new prison.


End file.
